Meet Carly Chamberlain, the Kokatha Charitable Trust Secretariat Administrator, from the not-for-profit Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (KAC) team in South Australia.

When COVID-19 began to impact operations for Carly and the KAC team it became critical to find a new way of working so they could safely continue to provide services to the Kokatha People. With support from BHP’s Vital Resources Fund, KAC were able to equip the team with new iPhones and iPads to help them work from home and facilitate virtual meetings.

For Carly, this meant she was able to continue ensuring Kokatha People had timely access to financial support for their health and wellbeing, educational expenses, funeral and cultural activities during these unprecedented times.

‘When the KAC office, local schools and day care facilities closed in March due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was hard to work from home with my five children there too. Thankfully, due to the timely support provided by BHP’s Vital Resources Fund, I was able to negotiate a working from home agreement with KAC that provided me with the resources I needed to continue work at home. This also allowed me to simultaneously take care of my children and provide continued support to Kokatha people during these uncertain times,’ Carly said.

KAC represents rights and interests of the Kokatha People who are the Traditional Owners of a large area of land in the northern region of South Australia, estimated to extend over some 140,000 km2, which includes BHP’s Olympic Dam.

This investment is part of BHP’s Vital Resources Fund, established to help support regional Australian communities facing the significant challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. BHP’s funding will also support advisory group technology support for remote meetings for KAC.

You can find out more here: https://www.bhp.com/community/bhp-vital-resources-fund/